I don't believe I'm as familiar with this case as id like to be while making a comment.  I had seen the show about her disappearance (can not remember the name of  actual show that hosted the story)

I am not convinced it was a "couple of local guys".   That would indicate they knew when she was leaving, more then one guy had a plan to do this, plan the attack etc.  Typically, more then one guy, together are not going to plan a sexual attack,  it tends to be a spur of the moment, like a pack mentality.  However, anything is possible, but it seems outlandish to me. 

 I would look towards her inner circle, I'm convinced the police have already interviewed the person involved.

Yeah, I just decided to randomly post that out of thin air. I also don't necessarily believe that - I simply thought it was interesting. thecat@unitelsd.com was his email. I would forward you the email, but I deleted it hence why I posted it on the forum so that it would always exist in some form. I deleted it because I have moved on from the tragedy. This was simply an email that he sent me and thought some people may appreciate it. Go ahead and believe what you will. I did not ask for more details at the time, because I simply do not have the time or intention of becoming an armchair investigator. I sent him an email because I don't like to read posts like the one you just posted - acting like you have insider knowledge. I like to hear from experts. If you do have some incriminating evidence we all would like to hear it. Good luck to you, the investigators, and everyone else here. This is my final post since I have moved on after 20 years following this case. 

Like to give one final shout out to Muskgrove. I really enjoyed your posts throughout the years. /salute

I spent a lot of time talking to and emailing Jim back in the day and still have all my emails from him to prove it.  I would never post any of them on a public forum however.  I will say that Jim had a few possibilities of who he thought might have been responsible, and near the top of his list were in fact two local guys and one of them was related to a person that worked at KIMT at the time of her abduction.  The other person(suspect two)was a friend of suspect one and Is African American.  Suspect two worked for an ambulance service back in the day and was and still is a very well known individual in the north Iowa area community.

If anyone is familiar with the podcast "True Crime Garage" they have a second show on the app Stitcher called "Off The Record".  On that show they discuss how they were contacted by a man who said he worked with the person who said he saw the van (RL) in the parking lot that morning at the Key Apartments.  The man said that RL and another coworker talked about "harrassing" Jodi with crank calls and following her. They drove by her apartment on their way to work (they were auto mechanics). This has been stated before that Jodi felt she was being stalked.  The man who reported this was new to the area and didn't really know who she was or that she was on tv. After she disappeared this man was watching "America's Most Wanted" and saw a segment about the disappearance and he saw RL on the show saying he saw the van on his way to work.  The man specifically remembered that RL and his friend did not show up to work that day and he had been irritated because he had to pick up the slack.  It does make sense that perhaps they were driving by on their way to work and because Jodi was late that day they happen to see her in the parking lot, abduct her, and don't show up at work.  RL then inserts himself into the situation in case anyone sees his vehicle.